FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015 file photo, Marty Baron, former editor of The Boston Globe, walks the red carpet as he attends the Boston area premiere of the film "Spotlight" at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, in Brookline, Mass. The film that tells the story of how The Boston Globe reported on the clergy sex abuse scandal. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

By

Published on: 12/18/2015

There's a scene in the movie "Spotlight" that Marty Baron gets asked about all the time.

It's his first day on the job as editor of The Boston Globe. The year is 2001. Baron (played by actor Liev Schreiber) is in a news meeting, and other editors are describing the stories their reporters are chasing.

Baron asks, rather directly, how the newsroom plans to follow up on a column about secrecy surrounding the case against a priest, Rev. John Geoghan, accused of serial sexual abuse of children.

Baron suggests challenging the Catholic Church in court to unseal legal documents that could reveal the role of church leaders.

Silence follows.

"The general response when there's silence is, 'Why don't we talk about it after the meeting?' " Baron said, recalling the real-life scene.

During a telephone interview last week, I pressed Baron on this.

How did he have the guts, on Day One, to challenge the most powerful institution in his new city?

He didn't see the move as gutsy. It's the essence of a journalist's job.

"Our work is to go and find out what the truth is," Baron said. "Especially if there's evidence of wrongdoing, we should be making every effort to find out, how do we get to the truth?"

Journalists are supposed to reveal facts when they are cloaked; to find stories where they aren't obvious or easy.

Those are practices Baron has embraced for almost 40 years as a journalist — starting in Stuart, Florida.

The Tampa native's first job out of college was as a reporter in what was then the Stuart bureau of the Miami Herald — during an era when newspaper competition was fierce on the Treasure Coast.

It was 1976, and Baron lived a couple of blocks from Confusion Corner in downtown Stuart, in an apartment on the St. Lucie River.

This is why I called Baron — because of his connection to the city where I have made my living as a journalist for more than a decade. I wanted to know how his time here — a short but formative nine months — helped him become the kind of editor who could spark an investigation like the one depicted in "Spotlight."

When he arrived, the population of Martin County was 50,000, a third what it is today. He was 21 years old. Maggy Hurchalla, now a veteran of local politics, was a new member of the Martin County Commission.

There wasn't much to do in Stuart then ("laundry," Baron deadpanned when I asked).

It didn't matter because Baron was entrenched in work. Six days a week, he and another journalist had to find enough Martin County news to fill a page of the Miami Herald.

Baron covered on-again-off-again plans for developing what would become Sailfish Point. He knew at least one elected official who voiced concerns about "aliens" coming — not from outer space, from South Florida. (There's still an element of this in Stuart, I told Baron.)

"You had to be incredibly enterprising to come up with stories there because they didn't naturally present themselves," Baron said.

That's something of a theme in his career.

The journalism performed under Baron's watch at The Boston Globe showed the world the extent of sex abuse in the Catholic Church — and, just as disturbing, the cover-up orchestrated by church leaders who moved abusive priests to new parishes.

What struck me most about "Spotlight" was how The Boston Globe staff had missed the bigger-picture story of the sex abuse scandal for so many years. It wasn't that its journalists hadn't covered the cases of accused priests. In some instances before Baron's arrival, they covered them so extensively it began to look like a crusade.

"Because it came to look like a crusade, they kind of scaled back in terms of their coverage," Baron said. "They dialed it back, and I think it's a fair conclusion they dialed it back too much."

It took the fresh perspective of an editor from another city to revive the story and reveal the complicity of leaders in the Boston Archdiocese.

"We don't always see the stories that are in front of us or around us, and there are many reasons for that," Baron said. "It doesn't involve any conspiracy, it generally involves just being busy and being distracted."

That problem is compounded in today's newsrooms, where resources are increasingly limited. Deep investigations often bubble up from in-depth beat reporting. As newspaper profits have shrunk, so have the number of beat reporters.

"When you do come across something that deserves greater attention, it's really important that (news) organizations have the will to dedicate the time and resources to investigate those stories fully," Baron said.

During his stint as editor of the Miami Herald, Baron's team won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the plight of the young Cuban boy Elián González. Baron also was at the helm there during the 2000 Bush v. Gore recount.

"There's no question that the story of a decades-long cover-up of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church has been the most impactful, has had enduring consequences and has been the most meaningful," Baron said. "Because it affected people's lives in such a direct way."

After the Globe's investigation, newspapers across the country followed with investigations in their own communities.

Pope Francis had to address the issue when he visited the United States this year. ("He kind of got in hot water based on what he said," Baron observed.)

The story has not ended. Baron recently tweeted a link to a report about two journalists on trial at the Vatican, accused of illegally publishing allegations of mismanagement based on confidential documents.

The beginning of Baron's career was marked by a period of aggressive growth for newspapers. It's almost unfathomable now to think the Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and Sun Sentinel once had reporters pounding the pavement on the Treasure Coast. Today, none has a bureau in the three-county region.

Baron is bookending his career during an extended period of contraction driven largely by digital media competition.

Still, he remains optimistic. "Spotlight" is one source of that.

"My hope is that this movie sends a message to many millions of people, around the country and around the world, that there's a need for vibrant local news organizations, that there's a need for investigative journalism, that there's a need for holding powerful institutions and individuals accountable," Baron said.

He is hopeful about the future of the business, just as he was hopeful about getting those court documents unsealed on Day One of his job in Boston.

Baron told me the story, not depicted in the movie, about what happened after that first news meeting.

After the awkward silence, he talked to the Globe's lawyers and outside counsel about their prospects of forcing the Catholic Church to unseal the court records pertaining to abuse cases.

The Globe's lawyers estimated they had a 50-50 chance.

Baron responded: "I said, 'Well, in journalism, those are very good odds.' "

They went for it. They won. They found the truth. They told the story (hundreds of them, actually).

It's the kind of work Baron started doing in Stuart four decades ago.

It's what has elevated him to his post as the country's most influential editor.

It's the kind of work he continues to drive today.

Eve Samples is opinion and audience engagement editor for Treasure Coast Newspapers. Contact her at 772-221-4217 or eve.samples@tcpalm.com. Follow her on Twitter @EveSamples.